


aienkien

by teavious



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: F/M, Finally!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 03:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4464161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teavious/pseuds/teavious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there were other worlds, it wouldn't be us.</p>
            </blockquote>





	aienkien

**Author's Note:**

> aienkien (japanese-n.) = uncanny relationship formed by a quirk of fate

There are hundreds of timelines where things go differently, Gen suspects, piled up by Moira; worlds in which gods chose differently, and so gave them, mere mortals, more or less. He thinks about it sometimes, and now speaks about it more often than not, with his queen.

Attolia never calls him strange. He sees her thinking it, but her words, even if harsher than that, never actually stop him from spilling out his ideas, crazy as they might be. She also never stops him from doing things, crazy as they might be.

He loves her even more for this, and even more for the fact that she starts talking of other them before he even asks her to.

* * *

 

There is one world out there, carefully concealed in one of the scrolls gods keep in their libraries, where he never meets the Queen of Attolia. Where his grandfather was never Thief, or if he was, he died long before he had the chance to pass on his tricks. He never falls in love with a lonely young girl, who has just her mind as dancing partner; he never becomes Thief of his own. A tradition dies in Eddis. He maybe marries a nice girl or he becomes a traveler. Maybe he is his cousin’s personal guard. But as years pass, his curiosity diminishes, until the rumors of a cruel queen would become realities, ones that he’ll never question.

The Queen of Attolia continues to rule, in fear of only the Mede Empire and her barons, shrinking, forgetting how to breathe, on a throne that only waits to taste her blood. She never relearns trust, she never tastes love. She dies with a bitter taste on her tongue, maybe even with his own sword in her ribs, or his hands around her throat (here he has both hands and doesn’t she deserve this fate, at least in one place where they don’t mean so much to each other?).

This is the one world Eugenides –no, Attolis, refuses to believe it exists. So if he has to pray to his gods for only one thing, that would be to destroy this possibility.

* * *

 

In some, when his mother takes her last dance, she has her son to accompany her. He has the same laugh as her, and they share one pair of earrings, a clips carefully placed around his left ear. He’s so short and yet, she swears she never had such a good dancing partner, and she swirls and twirls and she’s the most beautiful sight he’s ever seen and how can someone not simply _adore_ her? ( _She was much like you_ , Gen says to Irene) When her foot slips, Gen doesn’t let go, instead tightening his grasp and that makes them two Thieves that could have been, but never were.

Irene’s father dies with his wish in his gut, his most loyal baron killing him in front of the court. She is young and terrified and her older brother hand around hers is making her want to run and hide and cry and do everything that, as a princess, she doesn’t. They’re separated by the guards, turned against their rightful heirs. Her brother dies first, any reason of those that remained loyal to the throne to revolt being beheaded.  When she is given the choice to marry a baron or have the same fate, a serviceable guard slips poison with her food, and she chooses that route.

It’s tragic, but the Queen sees Gen doing this (just as she suspects he’d do for her as well), and the King knows for quite a while now that the boundaries of Irene are limitless.

* * *

 

In some, the gods don’t favor him, and so his name (“the well-born”) is just a cruel irony. They don’t let him be part of the royal family, he actually _is_ a bastard and his skills only get him in prison, where no one has any interest in him besides a few bored guards when they feel like beating the shit out of someone. His prayers remain unanswered; there are no future-friends that need his help. And yet, he finds his way to Attolia, still. He’s punished for stealing, well enough, and when, after more than enough times of ending in prison, he’s brought in front of the sovereigns, he feels nothing but repulsion for their kind.

In some, Irene is actually stupid and shy. Awkwardly put aside every time in a formal setting, with insecurities taller than her body after her growing sprout, she doesn’t care much if her father dies or not, if she becomes queen or not. She listens and barely understands, becomes a wife too often shunned away and with a beauty that is refused blooming. She keeps silent during meetings and the only thing she asks for is to make out of a mere thief her personal entertainer. It’s better than the alternative of having his hand cut off, and so he doesn’t forget to be grateful to the poor Shadow Queen.

There’s too much pity for both their tastes, especially when they take none when it comes from each other, usually. 

* * *

 

In others, he is Thief, but he is also ambassador. He steals other countries’ secrets and makes them Eddis’. And it’s not like he dislikes Attolis, this time the eldest son of an assassinated king, whose first action was to marry off his sister to acquire peace, but he should at least make sure that his political moves won’t make a whole country crumble. Not even he is ready to bring that upon so many (only gods can do, and he’s reminded of his mission and of the bomb Eddis thrives above). And no one suspects him, until a thief of Attolis’ kind finds him out and threatens.

This time, Irene is quiet when she’s married off. She has a nice husband who lets her have whatever freedom she wishes for and only wants the same in return. She becomes Peace instead, the one who’ll do whatever it takes to keep her country, her brother’s country, in a state that won’t make other nobility, future heirs (hers or her brother’s children) take a choice that isn’t actually a choice at all.

She waltzes on shadows, plays with secrets and gathers puzzles pieces until everything makes sense, until there are no threats she can’t make disappear with a hand gesture. Her brother learns to appreciate her virtues, learns to respect her as a woman and love her as a sister. She needs it more than she wants to admit, and maybe that’s why she has no shame in inviting a man to dance to her, if that man is Eddis’ ambassador and doesn’t have the purest intentions in mind.

She talks in between the jumps and swirls of the local Eddisian dances, and he answers to her when he’s holding her close to him during the slower dances, and in the end, when they step back, her hair is loose and he misses three buttons.

A few weeks after that, an engagement proposal arises from Attolis to Eddis, and when they’re celebrating the success of this plan, Gen and Irene are burning in the middle of all those dancers. She falls and he catches her, and he keeps saying to her _You’re falling, you’re falling_ , but that’s one thing that only thieves do, so she just laughs, a sound foreign to his ears, and she just wants to _say I’ve already done, I’ve already done. I am in love, I am in love._

This is too happy even for Gen, and the ghost of his hand haunts him again. Attolia pretends that her crown isn’t as heavy as it feels.

* * *

 

Gen’s favorite though is the one they’re living. Because he hates but loves all the same. Because his mother was amazing, and she’ll continue to be so as long as he remembers how she danced on rooftops and continues to do so himself. Because he saw a girl once and then never stopped seeing her ever again. Because he loves so much it hurts both him and the one he loves, because even if plagued by nightmares, he wouldn’t give up anything he went through. Because he has Irene as _his wife,_ and he has three countries and more dreams than has the time to bring them all to reality. Because the gods are there watching every move of his and he’s determined to give them a good show. Because he has enough friends to last through every assassination attempt.

Because every other timeline is fickle and unsure, but in this one he’s sure of everything that has happened. Because he prefers to have faith in a cruel reality, than dream of sweeter times.

Irene was no optimist before he came up and still believes there are many horrible things that cannot be righted (including her actions), but she has to agree that there is little she’d give up to change this. Because she has him in so many ways that’s sickening sometimes. Because it’s gross how much she cares now, about so many things, but mostly him. Because her – their- country is better off than in most of her dreams. Because a burden she thought will take her to the grave is now shared with her King. Because she killed to learn to become a woman, and so she made herself queen. Because she is not just cruel anymore, but also a little bit more understanding, kind, lovely. Because if she were to give advice to rising queens again, it’d be to keep her friends close, and her enemies even closer.

 Because if the gods decided to talk to her to make things as they are, then all those other worlds are failures and this is the only one she needs.

* * *

 

They spend quite a lot spinning theories around, but in the end they’re just that. Even if there are all those different worlds, then they’ll still have to make do with what they have now and here.

Which is more than they think they deserve, but less than what fate has prepared for them, this time, like this.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> About time I write something for these books that totally ruined my life. I am so, so in love with Attolia and Eugenides, I have no words. I am afraid my fic doesn't do justice to the perfection that this series and this couple is, but I am obsessed with different timelines, universes, and I just could not help myself.
> 
> You can also find me on [tumblr](http://teavious.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
